Snow-gazing
by IguessIwritestuff
Summary: Star looked up, seeing a little flake of snow falling from the sky. "Look." she pointed their intertwined hands at it. "A shooting star." Marco laughed. "That's a snowflake." (One-shot)


"Star...there are so many things I've been meaning to tell you...I...uh...I think you're kind of...ugh, no." Marco tried, looking into the mirror and pushing a stray piece of hair back into place. He looked down at the blood red rose in his hands, noticing it coincidentally matched the color of his tie.

"Star, I'm just going to come right out and say it...no, no, and just no." Marco groaned. "I've been trying to say this for a while but...why is this so hard?"

Marco paced around in front of the mirror, sighing with each failed attempt to practice confessing that he may have been attracted to his best friend.

"You're the...brightest Star in my sky...? No, that's stupid."

"If I could wish on any Star...no, that's even worse."

"Star, I...uh...you're, uh...really, really, really amazing...ly great at being the shining Star in my life? No. God, just remove that from the vault."

He looked down at his watch in defeat. Twelve minutes and thirty-one seconds until they had to leave. That is, if they wanted to be exactly on time. Marco always liked being early, though.

"I'm never going to get this." Marco sighed. Fifteen years of life experience and yet he still couldn't talk like a normal person around girls. He thought he could speak normally around Star, but after a particularly awkward experience where they'd somehow gotten themselves locked in a closet and Star had accidentally shared she knew about Jackie's boyfriend (most likely that guy from skate camp) Marco had looked down and seen the love and sympathy in his best friend's eyes. God, her eyes were beautiful. She was beautiful.

Marco had felt his gaze shifting from her eyes to her lips, and had then looked away quickly, not speaking a word.

He couldn't...he wouldn't...not like that. They lived in the same house!

Marco was drawn out of his daydream by a knocking sound on his door.

"Marco?" Star called out, knocking again.

"Uh...just a minute!" Marco replied, frantically rushing around his room looking for his shoes.

"I bet he's naked." Marco heard from outside the door.

"Janna!" Star squealed.

"What? It's a logical option." Janna replied, and Marco groaned, knowing exactly what was coming next.

"Marco?" Star said timidly. "Are you...naked?"

"No, Star, I'm not naked." he replied, finding one shoe under his desk but not the other.

"Oh. Okay." Star said. Marco went back to searching for his other shoe when he was stopped dead in his tracks.

"That's exactly what someone who was naked would say." Janna whispered loudly, and Marco could hear muffled giggles outside his bedroom door.

"Do you want to come in?" Marco rolled his chocolate eyes.

Star cracked the door open, peering in to make sure she didn't see anything she didn't want to. "You're not naked." she said, shoving the door open.

"Damn." Janna muttered, earning herself a punch in the arm from Star.

"Can you help me find my other sh-" Marco started, and then took a look at his best friend. "-oe..."

It hit him just exactly how pretty she was at that moment. The sleeves of her ice blue dress fell off her shoulders, leaving them exposed underneath a tangle of knee-length blonde curls. Her standard devil-horned headband was gone, replaced with a simple blue barrette. There were sparkly star stickers to the side of her left eye, which was sort of her new fashion statement. It was odd, but cute. She'd taken off her horned boots and replaced them with silver wedged heels, making her just a little closer to his height. Star seemed to be taking his attire in as well. She bit her lip as she looked at his suit.

"You look great." she smiled, and Marco blew out a puff of air. "Very handsome."

"Yeah. Yeah, uh so do you. Look great, I mean. Not that you're not handsome, or, uh, pretty. I...uh..."

"Yo, Romeo, I found your shoe." Janna called out, breaking Star and Marco's awkward daze. "And your wallet." she murmured to herself, smirking.

She tossed the shoe towards Marco, who skillfully caught it in one hand. He sat down on his bed, untying the bow.

"Put it back, Janna." he said without even looking up. Janna grumbled, putting the bill in her hand back in his wallet.

"How do you do that?" she asked.

Star had occupied herself by memorizing the answers on Marco's math homework when a rose on his desk caught her eye. "Marcoooooo." she cooed, holding the flower up to her heart. Marco looked up, awkwardly smiling.

"I didn't want you to have to remember your first school dance without flowers. Or...one flower, since we spent most of my money on Goblin Dog merchandise you're never going to wear again." he said, tying his shoe and standing up. He walked over towards Star, taking the flower from her hands and making sure he'd taken off all of the thorns. Once he was sure it was safe, he tucked the stem behind her ear, and was instantly pulled into a bone-crushing hug.

"Not to break up such a...romantic moment..." Janna gagged, and pointed to Mr. Diaz standing in Marco's doorway.

"Are you kids ready to go?" Mr. Diaz asked, and Marco quickly pulled away from Star.

"Yeah, Dad, I'll be downstairs in a minute." he muttered, looking down at his feet.

"It's all good, Mr. D!" Star smiled. "We'll meet you in the car, Marco."

With that, she grabbed Janna's arm and pulled her friend from the room.

Marco took one last deep breath, looking at his desk and noticing a neatly folded yellow paper he'd kept there for weeks.

"Maybe tonight." he told his reflection, putting it in his pocket.

...

Marco spent fourteen minutes in the car squished in the middle seat between Star and Janna and a dozen large bottles of juice. The girls were ranting about mindless dance details, and Marco's parents were chattering away about how they were dropping their baby off at his first school dance and how cute he looked and how pretty Star looked...typical parental conversation.

Marco tried to focus on the death metal music blaring out of the car speakers to distract himself from the chaos surrounding him. His father had weird taste in music but it was better than participating in a discussion about Oskar Greason or Marco's baby photos.

Somehow, about halfway, the conversation turned to Oskar Greason's baby photos, and Janna took great pleasure in graphically describing how her brother had been an immensely chubby child.

Marco was glad to escape the horrors of the conversation, because his parents had just started participating when they pulled into the school parking lot.

"Marco!" Angie called out after Star and Janna had walked into the school. Marco walked back over to the car, sighing.

"Yeah, Mom?" he asked.

His mother pressed a kiss up to his cheek, following it by saying, "Have fun, and be safe. And...maybe dance with Star. I think she'd really appreciate it."

Marco groaned, trying to wipe his mother's lipstick off of his face. "Okay, yeah, sure." he said. Marco loved his parents, but having his mother's lipstick on his face before a school function? He knew it would lead to some awkward questions that he didn't really want to answer.

...

Star was lonely. She'd been refilling the punch bowl for nearly an hour, and then going back to sitting in her same depressing seat. Alone.

Janna had snuck off into the hallways to take a call from the secret boyfriend she claimed she didn't have, and had been gone for quite a while. She didn't even know where Marco had gone.

Maybe this was how it was supposed to go, Star sighed. Maybe she wasn't meant to find love at the winter formal or prom or something like she'd seen in cartoons.

Star felt a hand on her shoulder, whirling around to see Marco smiling.

"Hey." he said, sitting down beside her.

"Hey." she replied. "You want to get out of here?"

Marco shrugged. "Can't be any worse than humiliating myself in front of Jackie."

Star looked at his shirt, stained with grape juice. "Yikes." she said, taking a napkin off of the table and dabbing at his chest.

Marco pushed her hand away. "Leave it." he said, sighing. "It'll remind me that real life isn't some cartoon where everything goes perfectly."

Star snorted. "Yeah, where the prince kisses the princess, who somehow after being asleep for a hundred years still has perfect makeup, and they get married and ride off into the sunset."

Marco put his hand on top of Star's accidentally, but just left it there.

"No kidding." he said. "I hope that when you find your prince he's not looking for some cliché princess with perfect hair and makeup even after waking up."

Star smiled at her best friend. "And I hope when you find your princess that she'll find your mom's lipstick stain on your cheek as funny as I do."

"Aw, really?" Marco groaned, and Star dipped the edge of her napkin into her water, wiping it against his face. The color came off into the napkin, and Star set it down.

"It was cute." she giggled. "Not many teenage boys still let their moms kiss them."

"It wasn't a voluntary act." Marco protested, and Star rolled her eyes.

"I know you, Marco Diaz. I know that you'll still let your mommy kiss your face because you are a cute little dork, and not the 'bad boy' you try so desperately to be."

Marco chuckled, trying to distract himself from the fact that she just called him 'cute'. "Misunderstood bad boy." he replied, and Star pinched the bridge of her nose,

"Yeah, yeah, of course." she said. Marco took her hand in his, smiling.

"You want to go outside?"

...

It was chilly outside, but neither minded. It was a nice break from the terrible music playing inside, not to mention the lack of irritating teenagers was calming.

Marco pointed to a bench on the football field, and Star nodded. Neither needed to say anything.

They sat down, and almost immediately Star's head fell onto Marco's shoulder. He squeezed her hand tighter.

Star looked up, seeing a little flake of snow falling from the sky. "Look." she pointed their intertwined hands at it. "A shooting star."

Marco laughed. "That's a snowflake." he said, leaning his head over on top of hers. "You're funny though."

They stayed there for a minute, until Star started to fidget around in her seat. Marco sat up, and Star followed suit.

"Marco, I've been meaning to-" Star started. She gestured for Marco to continue speaking.

"Star," Marco said at the same time, putting his other hand down on the bench. "There are so many things I've wanted to say to you."

Star put her hand on top of his, smiling up at her best friend. "Why didn't you?" she replied.

"I, uh...I just...you know, you're the brightest Star in the sky?...no, that's so bad, I screwed up...I'm sorry, can I start over?" Marco said, looking at his feet in embarrassment.

"I'd rather you didn't." Star admitted. "Marco, you've shown me some amazing things here on Earth and I know that sometimes I don't really show how much I appreciate you."

The light of the stars danced off of her sapphire eyes, and Marco wanted to capture that image in his mind for the rest of his life. She met his gaze, and began to close her eyes.

Marco could feel her warm breath hitting his lips.

"Hey Star?" Janna called out, pushing open the door to the school gym.

"Ohhhhhh my gosh." Star pushed against Marco's chest, and Marco looked at the ground. She'd almost just kissed Marco Diaz. What had she been thinking? Marco looked just as startled as she was, so obviously he hadn't been planning on nearly locking lips either. "Uh, hey." Star said, awkwardly waving at her friend. Her cheeks were bright red, as were Marco's. Their fingers were still intertwined.

"We just ran out of juice inside. And since you were in charge of drinks...I thought you should know." Janna looked at Star, and then Marco, down at their hands, and back to Star. "Am I interrupting something?"

"NO!" the teens shouted in unison, pulling their hands apart.

"I...uh...I'll go back inside." Janna muttered, backing away slowly but not taking her eyes off of them. She pushed open the door behind her, still staring, and backed into the school gym.

Star turned to Marco, and Marco sighed.

"Wait. he said, holding up a finger, and Janna peeked out of the door a final time. "We see you." he yelled.

Janna cursed under her breath. "Fine." she muttered, letting the heavy metal door close.

"That was terrible timing." Star giggled, and Marco sighed.

"She's still watching us. You know that, right?" he groaned, pointing towards a window where sure enough, Janna's face was pressed up against the glass, along with Alfonzo and Ferguson.

Star pulled Marco into a hug, burying her face in the soft fabric of his shirt. "Does that bother you?" she asked. "That they're watching?"

"Sort of." Marco admitted, sliding off of the uncomfortable bench and sitting down on the fake grass. Star took a seat beside him.

"Why? It's not like we're going to do anything." Star said, rolling her eyes.

Marco halfheartedly smiled. "Yeah. I don't know what she's waiting for."

Star shivered, and Marco noticed.

"Arms out." he said, and before she knew it Star was enveloped in the warmth of Marco's blazer.

"Aren't you cold?" she asked, and Marco shook his head. The grape juice stain on his shirt made her giggle.

"Don't worry about it." he replied, his eyes reflecting the bright lights of the football field. She smiled, putting her hands in his pockets. It was then that Marco realized he still had the yellow paper in his jacket.

And of course she'd pulled it out in confusion.

"What's this?" Star asked, and Marco snatched it out of her hands.

"Nothing." he snapped. Star snatched it back, beginning to unfold it.

"Geez, Marco, it's just me." Star laughed, and looked up at her best friend. All the color had drained from his face, and he was biting his bottom lip.

Star unfolded the paper, looking down and seeing her name in Marco's meticulous penmanship.

"So far so good." she smiled, and as her eyes went further down the page she gasped.

Marco visibly cringed. "Star, I-" he started, and she grabbed his face in her hands, pressing her lips up to his. It was a short and innocent kiss, but nonetheless they both had trouble looking at each other for a minute or so.

Star was the one to break the silence, as she usually was. "Marco...I...I don't know what to say." she mumbled. "Except..." she paused for effect, and Marco looked at her nervously. "Except...that you're a dork. You wrote a love poem?"

Marco blushed, hearing the word love escape Star's lips. "Can't it be a 'like' poem?" he asked, and Star rolled her eyes.

"I repeat. You," she said, poking his nose, "are such a dork."

"I can't tell if you liked it or not." Marco replied, and Star laughed. He loved that sound.

"Honestly?" Star said, leaning in close as if she was telling him a secret. "It was terrible." she whispered. Marco took the paper out of her hands, and she reached to get it back.

"I thought it was terrible." Marco said, and Star pouted.

"It is. But it's also very cute."

Marco sighed, and Star eagerly grabbed the paper back, holding it to her chest. "I love it."

"You're too easily impressed." Marco replied, and Star kissed the paper dramatically.

"I. Love. It." she said again, glaring at Marco. He smiled.

"You should probably take care of that juice problem." Marco said, and Star groaned, pushing herself off of the ground and up to her feet.

"Fine. But you're doing all the juice stuff. I need to talk to Janna." Star said, grabbing Marco's hand and pulling him to his feet.

"I didn't expect it any other way."


End file.
